Homebrew Computer Testing

[rdos]

I suppose you'd better decide yourself which you want to do. The arm seems ok to me.

I just sent a new PCB for manufacturing. It is a solar panel controller based on a Microchip PIC, with an RS485 interface so I can interface it to my home controller system running RDOS.

BTW, I think I've changed my mind about upgrading the PC/104 board to Intel Atom, given the terrible performance problems Atom seems to have with my OS.

[sds2017]

I don't know about your what your goals by using the intel atom are ex. gaming, simple tasks, ect. but, based on my knowledge it's more for a smaller device such as a laptop or even a tablet. I really have changed my mind to building my own architecture on a fpga but, the fpga's have so many pins and I don't want to use a already made board. The reason I want to build my own is to create reconfigurable computer

fpga soft core
os -> memory
drivers -> memory
apps -> memory

[rdos]

I don't know about your what your goals by using the intel atom are ex. gaming, simple tasks, ect. but, based on my knowledge it's more for a smaller device such as a laptop or even a tablet.

It's a rather dated project that goes back to 2003. My idea was to provide a set of local controllers for my home heating system that had three 7-segment LED displays for current temperature, reference temperature and motor valve value, and a 6-wire communication link to a central controller. That way I could set the wanted temperatures in my house from the central controller, and also collect realtime data. I first built a PCB myself with doing all the etching and stuff myself, and then in 2005 I used Macaos for manufacturing a real PCB, and another one in 2007 with some additional features. These PCBs interface with a computer by a PC/104 bus. I first used a Prometheus PC/104 board, but upgraded it to a NANO7240 in 2007. For the software part of it, I used my own OS, and wrote suitable applications. At one time I even had it on the web, so I could study temperatures and weather data on the web. Additionally, I had a weather station (WS2000 with a serial port interface), but it broke down last year. I bought a new one in december last year (WH1080 with a USB interface), and managed to implement a partially functioning driver a week ago or so.

Another part of this project is to implement some renewable energy systems. I manufactured a PCB for a combined solar panel and wind turbine controller about a year ago, however in a gale last autumn the wind turbine broke down, and there were several problems with the solar panel part of the PCB as well, so I redesigned the PCB a while ago, and will do a new one in the beginning of May that only uses solar panels. This PCB, that is controlled by a Microchip PIC controller, will also deliver realtime power generation data to my central controller, so I can log it and analyse how well the solar panel controller works. The aim is also to run the complete system on the solar panels only, with some batteries as a backup.

The reason I want to update the controller to a multicore processor is that I made some mistake in the communication hardware between the controller and the PCB, so I regularily need to reset the logic on the PCB. I think this problem would be solved if I moved away from interrupts, and let one of the cores handle the PCB communication with polling instead. However, the dual core Intel Atom processor does not seem to have much better performance than the present Intel Celeron, so I don't know about that.

I really have changed my mind to building my own architecture on a fpga but, the fpga's have so many pins and I don't want to use a already made board. The reason I want to build my own is to create reconfigurable computer

fpga soft core
os -> memory
drivers -> memory
apps -> memory

1. Do you have tools for programing FPGAs?
2. Do you have tools for doing professional PCBs?

I think that some FPGAs, just as some microcontrollers, have almost free tools with professional quality, and very cheap development boards, something that was not the case some time ago. That means (1) should be ok if you select a suitable FPGA. However, for modern, high-pin count ICs, you definitely want to do professional PCBs, and then you need a CADD program, and somebody manufacturing your PCB. Also be aware that you cannot easily hand-solder some type of surface mounted ICs, especially not if they have too small pin-distances (below 1mm is very hard to get right), or uses packages such as BGAs. These needs to be wave-soldered. You can of course let somebody wave-solder your PCB, but it would increase the costs even more. Hand-made PCBs realistically needs to use 0.1 inch pin distances or larger and hole mounted ICs / components.

[Owen]

Both Altera and Xilinx will give you a free, pretty much fully featured version of their FPGA software.

Packages down to 0.5mm pin spacing are hand solderable. The main tricks are flux, using more solder than you would think you need, and the use of solder braid to clean up any bridges. This isn't a precision operation; you apply solder liberally, and the surface tension will direct it into the right place.

You wouldn't wave solder surface mount stuff; wave soldering is used for through hole components. Surface mount components are done by applying solder paste to the PCB, using a pick and place machine to place the components, then heating everything up in an IR oven.

[cb88]

If only it were actually possble to buy the atmel AT697 ... I'd like to make something with it or one of the eAsic Leon processors but it seems that they are soo highly priced that isn't possible unless I have just missed who is selling them for less than $5k

Actually I noticed that there are a few distributors from china selling them for practically pennies but I am skeptical.

[Combuster]

it seems that they are soo highly priced that isn't possible unless I have just missed who is selling them for less than $5k

Per ten, hundred, thousand? Most chip resellers only sell batches.

[cb88]

No, *each* but it seems that is for the space grade heavily tested version. You can get engineering samples shipped from china quite cheap it seems..

I'll see if I can't get a few sometime I should be able to design a board fairly simply, just need sdram a prom and a few PCI 2.2 devices... It would be pretty cool if I could sell a few of them sort of like a more manly version of the arduino. I personally would want to make a laptop out of it. Something Fujitsu P1120/EEE PC sized. So I would need to get at least USB and a graphics device (really not sure how that would work other than slapping a full blown PCI connector on there which I wouldn't want to do). Sure it would be dog slow but also rather fun to build and such and not all that complex.

I was reading some roadmap docs and perhaps someday atmel intends to make a version with only 100pins and also an SMP capable version someday. They dated back to 2010 though not sure if they still intend to do that.

[sds2017]

It's been a long time since I posted because I've been working on several projects and one of them is a reconfigurable computer. I chose the Xilinx Spartan 6 225 pin package fpga as the core. I have several ports that are going to be on the computer such as ethernet and usb. I've come to two last decision before I start creating the board. The first is I want graphics and audio coming out of the board through one port so which in your opinion is overall "better" HDMI, DisplayPort, or a different interface. The second is which EDA should I use. I have some experience with eagle but I don't have enough money for the full version and I want Altium Designer but again it's too much money.

Thanks,
Jackson

[sds2017]

Does anybody have a opinion?